How to Make a Compass in Minecraft

Getting lost in the world of Minecraft almost feels like an everyday job. When wandering around hundreds of blocks away from your base, you might end up with no idea which way your home is. Fortunately, learning how to make a compass in Minecraft gives you a reliable way to navigate back to the world spawn point. So, check this guide to learn about a compass, what the crafting items are, and how to use it in the game.

Items Required to Make a Compass in Minecraft

Before learning how to make a compass in Minecraft, you will need just two resources: Minecraft iron ingots and redstone dust. Here’s how you can obtain them:

Item	Amount	Where to get
Iron Ingots	4x	Either mine iron ore and smelt it in a furnace or make a simple iron farm in Minecraft
Redstone Dust	1x	Mine the Redstone ores found in the deeper layers of the Overworld.
Crafting Table	1x	Make it using any 4x wooden planks

Since the basic materials required to make a compass are naturally found elements, you can refer to our Minecraft ore distribution guide to learn about the best Y-levels to look for them. Once the iron ingots and Redstone dust are obtained, prepare a Crafting Table to put the ingredients together on its grid.

How to Make a Compass in Minecraft: Crafting Recipe

Once you have four iron ingots and one redstone dust, follow the steps below to learn how to make a compass in Minecraft:

• First, open the Minecraft Crafting Table grid.
• Place a piece of Redstone dust in the middle cell of the second row.
• Then, you need to surround the Redstone dust with iron ingots on all sides, leaving only the diagonal cells of the crafting area empty.

That’s how you make a compass! You can then collect the item from the right-hand side and store it in your inventory.

How to Get a Compass in Minecraft World

To find a compass in Minecraft, generated naturally, consider looting the chests available in the following structures:

• Abandoned Camps: In the upcoming 26.3 update, you will be able to find a compass in the common chests of the Minecraft Abandoned Camps.
• Shipwrecks: Look inside the map chests to find a compass.
• Stronghold: Look for the chests found inside the libraries of the Minecraft strongholds.
• Villages: Look for the Cartographer’s chest to have a chance of finding a compass inside.
• Trial Chambers: Look inside the intersection barrels to have a slight chance of finding a compass.
• Ancient City: Compasses can be found inside the chests of an Ancient City in Minecraft.

Trading for a Compass

You can trade with expert-level librarian villagers in Minecraft to get a compass in exchange for 4 emeralds. It makes librarians one of the most required Minecraft villager jobs due to all the items you can get.

How Does a Compass Work in Minecraft

Even though learning how to make a compass in Minecraft makes you feel that it is basically the same as a real-world tool, the functionality is quite different. Instead of pointing north, Minecraft’s compass points towards the spawn point of your world.

It’s the location where you spawn in the world when you first load in. You just have to go in the direction where its red pointer is pointing to reach the world spawn point.

Because that point is in the overworld, the compass points in random directions while it’s in the Nether and the End dimension. As for the activation, the compass always keeps pointing.

It can be inside your inventory, in your hand, or even an item frame; the compass always points towards its assigned point. You can make it point to custom locations with the help of a Minecraft loadstone, but more on that later.

All Uses of a Compass in Minecraft

Now that you know how to make a compass in Minecraft, it’s worth understanding what the item can actually do. Here are the best uses of a compass:

Make Compass Point to Bed or Base

To make a compass point towards a bed or any custom location, you need to craft a lodestone. To craft a lodestone, you need to combine 8 chiseled stone bricks with an iron ingot. Use our linked guide to easily find Netherite in Minecraft.

When it’s ready, you just have to use the compass on the lodestone to activate it. This works even in the Nether and the End dimension. But if the loadstone gets destroyed, the connection will break, and the compass will start pointing to the world spawn point again.

You can even have separate compasses pointing to different lodestones. This game mechanic is useful for marking different locations in the game.

Make a Recovery Compass in Minecraft

Realistically, most Minecraft players only need a guide when they are looking for their lost resources after dying. This is possible when you make a recovery compass in Minecraft.

You can craft it by combining echo shards with a regular compass. This new compass points towards the direction of the location where you last died. It’s useful to recover resources even if you don’t remember where you died.

Craft and Upgrade Maps

A compass can also be used as an ingredient when crafting a map in Minecraft. You can place a compass at the center of the crafting table grid and surround it with paper to get the item.

Now, the map can be used to track the nearby terrain, keep a check of the structures present nearby, whether it’s a village, a Woodland Mansion, or any other loot areas in the game. So, if you want a visual view of the area where you’re setting up your base, learning how to make a compass in Minecraft is th quite essential.

Now that you know how to make a compass in Minecraft, you never have to get lost within Minecraft biomes again. You can freely create all the best Minecraft house ideas around your world without worrying about finding them. Having said that, what are you planning to use the compass for? Tell us in the comments!